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The Economist called Kodak a "complacent monopolist." Does that sound like any other company you know ... or maybe an industry?

Journalism in the digital age is a process rather than a product; an exchange rather than a presentation; intimate rather than abstract.

-- David Frum via Tina Brown and Danny McCall

Journalism professor Jay Rosen posed this question on Sunday:



I wasn't paying attention to my Twitter feed on Sunday so I have the luxury of reading John Robinson's excellent piece:  A death in the family: How "our newspaper" became "the newspaper."  There's a pretty good discussion going in the comments as well.

I'm not so sure it's as Norman Rockwellish as Jay Rosen seems to suggest in the "our paper" vs "the paper" debate. If it is, that may have vanished more than 35 years ago. In a comment on Robinson's piece, media consultant Terry Heaton suggests maybe it happened in the early '70s with Watergate.

Maybe it was even earlier.

Digital news pioneer and former newspaper executive Rusty Coats, now a consultant and science fiction writer, said: "My grandfather took the (Louisville) Courier-Journal (the big-city paper) and The Evening News specifically, I think, so he could cuss at their disconnected idiocy with his coffee-shop cronies."

Even by the time I entered the newspaper business in the late 1970s half or more of the reporters at the small daily where I began were young whippersnappers from somewhere else and who hoped to go somewhere else. Yes, there were stalwarts who were rooted to the community. But for many, it was just the first stop on the career path.

Even today, whether it's "the newspaper" or "our newspaper," people like the validation of seeing their achievements or their children's achievements "in the paper" -- and they are most definitely are not talking about online or just on Faceboook, even if they "like" it there.

I worked at my hometown paper as well, The (Asheboro) Courier-Tribune. It was a small family owned paper. Some people did say "our paper," but others said it was "Roy Cox's paper" (the owner). He also owned AM and FM  radio stations in town.

When I arrived at my present stop of Knoxville in the mid-80s, it was a place where you could bring in your child on an afternoon and get a birthday photo made for a small donation to a local charity. The photo would run in the paper on Sunday and you'd even get mailed a print. The photo was taken by a photographer who may have taken a prize-winning news photo earlier in the day.

Other fairly large papers had pets of the week, houses of the week, etc.; some still do for that matter. It certainly wasn't -- and still isn't -- all disconnected "Big J" journalism.

There were plenty of people then who said we sucked and the competing paper, The Knoxville Journal, was better. And many who said the opposite.

It was also a place where you could walk in the front door of the newsroom without passing by any locked door or guard and march into editor's office and try to slug him if you liked (attempted at least once in my memory).

Now, they just berate editors in the website comments, by email or on the phone.

In the early 80s when my friend Bill Moss was at the Salisbury (N.C.) Post (a great small-town family run newspaper at the time), he ran a summertime "garden game" of prodigious vegetables. By then, North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms was already railing about the evils of the Liberal Media. All award-winning tomatoes are liberals, I guess.

But Rosen and Robinson do have a point. The emotional connection to the newspaper as a community institution, or one of the things that defines a community as "our newspaper" in "our community" is fading. it could be labyrinth voice mail systems, paid weddings and obituaries, journalist without roots, or the number of media choices. Or none of those.

Vince Vawter, a former E.W. Scripps editor and publisher turned novelist, said:

"Newspapers became 'the newspaper' instead of 'our newspaper' when society changed and newspapers didn't.

"Sunday's News Sentinel contained at least a half-dozen year-in-review pieces. Tell the truth now, how many of those did you read? I read none, and I'm a newspaper junkie.

Why does The New Sentinel and 95% of the other daily newspapers in the country run these kind of pieces? Answer: Because they always have."

In an email, he also outlined a "Zip Code Manifesto" in which papers would register some version of newspaperdocom-plus-zipcode,  and staff it with one person who sold ads, wrote stories and managed freelance contributions. An idea, he said, he suggested while still with Scripps.

And, Vawter noted, the drift from "our" to "the" isn't only confined to the news package:

"The horse is already out of the barn on this one, but newspapers lost out (became "the" instead of "our") when they gave up control of the advertiser. As recently as 10 years ago, the local mom-and-pop advertiser was terrified of that mysterious creature known as the Internet. At that point, newspapers should have gotten into the business of web hosting and web design with a vengeance. Some of us made a few half-hearted attempts, but we weren't serious because we didn't want to whittle away at the high-margin print dollars. We lost control and now others, especially social media, are calling the shots.

"In short, we newspaper people thought we would always be loved, respected and trusted. Society turned into a fickle girlfriend always looking for the next blind date. That's what happened to 'our' newspaper."

Always, it turns out, can be a very short time.

My most read blog posts during 2011 include only three written in 2011. Long tail at work or did I just used to write more interesting posts? A handful of these also made the list for the most read in 2010.

In the ring: Dolly vs Google (2008)

Just how did Benton's Bacon become a craze? (2010)

Fireworks at the lake (2007)

On Being There (2007)

Angry Journalist as career Yoda (2008)

Clematis in early morning (2007)

These days there's always a camera near the spotlight (2011)

Splatter (2008)

First Amendment found damaged in storm cleanup (2011)

In Washington, a half-effort on open government will get you an award (2011)

No medium has ever survived the indifference of 25 year olds.

Sorry, Mashable:

This wasn't the year that paywalls paid off: It was the year that some paywalls paid off for some specific outlets while the rest struggled. That's not such a catchy headline. But then again, we all know that sometimes reality doesn't match the simplicity of the news.

-- Bobbie Johnson, GigaOm

Friend and fellow Knoxville resident Mark Schaefer has a new book coming out in March on social media and marketing called Return on Influence!..

And he's got a special offer. If you pre-order the book between now and March  he'll send you a bonus eBook. The eBook is an Insider's Guide to Klout. Sounds interesting as well.

I haven't had a chance to look at the book much less read it, but the promotional copy will give you an idea if it's something you would be interested in:

Return On Influence is the first book to explore how brands are identifying and leveraging the world's most powerful bloggers, tweeters, and YouTube celebrities to build product awareness, brand buzz, and new sales.  In this revolutionary book, I'll show you how to use the latest breakthroughs in social networking and influence marketing to achieve your goals through:

In-depth explanations of the sources of online influence -- and how they can work for or against you!

Interviews with more than 50 experts including tech blogger Robert Scoble, Influence Author Robert Cialdini, and industry thought leaders like Chris Brogan.

An insider's look at the controversial social scoring company Klout and its process for assigning influence numbers to everyone.

Practical, actionable tips to increase your own personal power and online influence.

More than a dozen original social influence marketing case studies.

Even if you already use social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter or blogging to maintain an online presence, this eye-opening, action-ready guide shows you how to reach the "super-connectors" who ignite epidemics through word-of-mouth influence ... and become one yourself.

This is the future of marketing at your fingertips: low-cost, high-speed, influence-driven, and powerful. Filled with fascinating case studies, interviews, and insider advice, this essential guide prepares you for the next wave of social networking. This is how to win friends and influence people in the digital age-with a Return on Influence.

Whether you're the CEO of a large corporation, run your own small business, or are seeking your own place of power on the social web, Return On Influence is the essential field guide for the new influence marketing.

Two quotes worth the stocking for journalists to consider.

Wow. Remember when we used to discover news fr

Image via Wikipedia

om...the news?

-- Randi Zuckerberg, former marketing director of Facebook, and older sister of Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. (via Steve Rubel)

Image via CrunchBase

We don't need paid professionals to do retweeting for us. They're slicing up the attention pie thinner and thinner, giving us retreaded rehashes of warmed over news, all hoping for a bit of attention because the issue is trending. We can leave that to the unpaid, I think.

The hard part of professional journalism going forward is writing about what hasn't been written about, directing attention where it hasn't been, and saying something new.

-- Seth Godin, entrepreneur, marketer, author and public speaker. (via Danny McCall)

A roundup of the December Carnival of Journalism is up on the Guardian Developer Blog.

My offering was called Just Surprise Me and is one of 19 that tackled this month's topic of:

With it being December, we thought we would adopt a Christmas theme for this month's topic - and pick something, in keeping with being hosted by a Developer blog, that we could ask of both technologists and journalists.

If you are a journalist, what would be the best present from programmers and developers that Santa Claus could leave under your Christmas tree?

And, correspondingly, if you are a programmer or developer, what would be the best present from journalism that Father Christmas could deliver down your chimney?

Check them out; some excellent reads.

This month's Carnival of Journalism is themed for the holiday season.

THE TOPIC

With it being December, we thought we would adopt a Christmas theme for this month's topic - and pick something, in keeping with being hosted by a Developer blog, that we could ask of both technologists and journalists.

If you are a journalist, what would be the best present from programmers and developers that Santa Claus could leave under your Christmas tree?

And, correspondingly, if you are a programmer or developer, what would be the best present from journalism that Father Christmas could deliver down your chimney?

This is easy: I want surprises from developers and programmers!

Not bug fixes or tweaks or enhancements or incremental improvements or iterations.

I want a solution I didn't think of to a need.

I want a solution to a need I didn't think of.

More than I want to admit I am a prisoner of the paradigms of my profession, my industry, the culture of my company, and the work flows and tools I have at hand.

I'm lucky to work with a few that do come up with ideas that amaze me.

To make it happen, I think developers have to have blocks of free work time scheduled in. Google's 20 percent time program is one company's well-documented effort to encourage this.

Give me the creative side, the artist within, the where-did-that come-from.

So, surprise me. Awe me with the wonderment of a wide-eyed four-year-old.

And, oh yes, you don't have to wait until Christmas. Anytime is just fine.

I think you will find the other Carnival wish lists somewhere around here within a few days.

(The box of chocolates is from Blackberry Creek Confections.)